Contents

Export Your Data

Textbook Tracker makes it easy to export your data to archive or use in another application. Use our templates to export only the data you want, in the format you want. Exporting item and patron records does not affect the data that exists in your database. The export is only a copy of your data; the original records remain intact. Finished exports can be downloaded as a TXT file in Operations Management.

Toolbar

Quick/Saved. Choose the Quick tab to run a one-time export, or choose the Saved tab to run one of your customized exports.

Lock/Unlock. In a saved export, click the padlock icon to unlock it for editing.

Actions. Options to duplicate or delete a saved export.

Switch Site. In a Central Union, click this icon to change the site you're working in.

Support. Having trouble? This will open support documentation for this topic in another tab.

Quick/Saved

The list of available exports and the options they contain depend on whether you're in the Quick or Saved tab.

Quick Exports

Quick exports are basically templates that do not store custom selection settings and are mainly used for running one-time exports or as a foundation for custom, saved exports—any modifications made to a particular export are discarded immediately upon clicking on another category or export title. To save the template you’ve just modified, click Create Saved Export at the bottom of the Selected Export pane. After adjusting the default title (optional), your new export—including custom settings—will be added to the Saved tab.

Saved Exports

The Saved tab contains custom exports that you (or others) have created, saved, and shared. Saved exports can also be set to run on a schedule, emailed to the recipient(s) of your choice, and uploaded to an FTP server. Keep in mind that saved exports only retain the selection criteria used to create the export, not the results of the export itself.

Take some time to explore the exports in each category and the options available in each tab, then set up a few saved exports to easily access and run in the future.

Categories

Exports are organized in categories in a list on the left side of the window. Select a category to view the list of associated exports in the Export Selection pane to the right.

All Exports. This category contains all the available export types.

Patrons. Export records for all (or a specified group) of patrons.

Textbooks. Title and copy exports allow you to archive your textbook information, create catalogs for selected items, or modify data for use outside Textbook Tracker.

The list of available exports depends on both the category you've selected and whether you're in the Quick or Saved tab.

Export Selection

Once you've selected a category, the associated exports will be listed in the Exports Selection pane on the right. You can search for a specific title in the filter bar and, in the Saved tab, you can further narrow the list of exports by Favorites, Shared, and Operator. In some ways, these filters far surpass the usefulness of the Categories pane. In fact, you may find yourself never using the Categories filters again, preferring instead to use the All Exports category in conjunction with the filter bar.

Favorite. See the exports marked as Favorite.

Shared. See the exports marked as Shared.

Operator. See the exports that you (the current operator) have saved.

Filter. Enter a term to filter the exports by title.

Remember, the list of available exports directly relates to the category you've selected and the filters you've applied.

Selected Export

Once you've sufficiently narrowed your filter criteria, scroll through the Export Selection list to locate and select the specific export you would like to view, modify, or run. Each tab contains the settings and options you need to configure how your export is ordered, organized, scheduled, and presented. Quick exports have only the Selections and Options tabs, while Saved exports allow more customization options. The export will populate in the tabs below.

To edit a saved export, first click the padlock icon to unlock it, then modify the data in each tab per your specifications, and click Save when you're done. Click Run to run the export.

Quick Export

Saved Export

The controls at the bottom of the Selected Export pane depend on whether you're viewing a Quick or Saved export.

Show Additional Selections. View a few additional options to further customize your export.

Create Saved Export. Save this export with your custom settings so you can run it again later.

Run. Run your export. When complete, you can view and download it in Operations Management.

The Selections and Options tabs are the same for Quick and Saved exports. The Overview, Schedule, Notification, and FTP tabs are specific to Saved exports.

Overview

The Overview tab serves as an export summary. It includes the title (e.g. Export Unpaid Fines), export creator, usage notes (e.g. Run at the end of each month to import into our money management software.), and allows you to mark it as a favorite or shared.

Settings

Name

Enter or edit the name of the export here (e.g. Export Unpaid Fines).

Created By

This information is automatically populated with the creator's name and site ID code.

Notes

You can provide general usage notes here.

Favorite

Mark the export as a favorite. You can filter the results in the Export Selection pane to show only those marked as Favorite, which is especially helpful if you find yourself running the same exports regularly.

Shared

Mark the export as shared. You can filter the results in the Export Selection pane to show only those marked as Shared. Sharing frequently-used exports with other operators is often helpful when particular exports are frequently performed.

Selections

The Selections tab is where you build, format, arrange, limit and/or expand the export to suit your needs. If you find some of your exports lacking the necessary selection information, try checking the Show Additional Selections box for more options. The settings in this tab vary per export.

Options

Choose sort and format options here. The settings in this tab vary per export.

Schedule

Use these settings to schedule this export to run on a regular basis. For example, if you want it to run every Saturday at 10:00 p.m, set the following:

Frequency: Weekly

On: Saturday

At: 10:00 PM

Settings

Schedule

Check this box to unlock the scheduling capabilities.

Frequency

This dropdown menu allows you to specify how often you would like to repeat this export: Once, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly.

On

The options here depend on the frequency you selected above.

Once. Choose the date to run this export.

Daily. On options are not necessary.

Weekly. Choose the day the export will run each week.

Monthly. Choose the date the export will run each month.

Yearly. Choose the month and date the export will run each year.

At

Choose the time of day, including a.m. or p.m., to run the export.

Notification

Here you can enable an email confirmation and link to download the file to be sent to the recipient(s) of your choice once the export is complete.

Settings

Enable Email Notification

Check this box if you want to enable email notifications to be sent upon completion.

Email Notification To

Enter the recipient email addresses. You can provide more than one email address separated by commas.

For example: johndoe@examplelibrary.com,janedoe@examplelibrary.com

FTP

Textbook Tracker can save finished exports to an FTP server. These options allow you to specify the (secure) FTP server address and username/password credentials.

Settings

Upload Report to FTP Server

Check this box to set up your this option allow you to specify your (secure) FTP server URL and username/password credentials.

Protocol

If you'd like a more secure transmission that hides the username/password and encrypts the file content, FTP can be secured with SSL/TLS (i.e. “ftps://”). Be aware that the name “Secure FTP” can be confusing because it refers to two completely different protocols: “SFTP” and “FTPS”. Whenever the term Secure FTP is used, it is necessary to specify whether the SSH-based or SSL-based file transfer protocol is meant. Alexandria supports FTPS; the SSL-based file transfer protocol.

Host

Enter the host name or IP address of the FTP server without the URL protocol. For example, myserveraddress.com. Don't worry about including the URL protocol/scheme (e.g. “ftp://”) as this is automatically appended before the host name depending on your Protocol selection (above).

Port

While FTP typically runs over TCP port 21, FTPS (SSL/TLS) typically runs over port 21 or port 990. If you don't have permission to open multiple ports, both unencrypted FTP and encrypted FTPS will run over port 21.

Path

Enter the full path including directories and filename, such as /directory/subdirectory/filename.txt

Username and Password

Enter your FTP login credentials. If your FTP server is Provide a clear-text authentication and sign-in protocol in the form of a username and password. If your FTP server is configured to allow it, you can connect anonymously without having to enter anything

If you find yourself uncertain what an FTP server actually is, it's essentially just a software application that uses the File Transfer Protocol (i.e. FTP), a protocol used for sharing files over the internet. There are several FTP server software packages available that you can download and use for free.